Chrysalis: A Magazine of Women’s Culture began publication in 1977. Chrysalis was a feminist art journal founded at the Woman’s Building in Los Angeles by Kirsten Grimstad, Susan Rennie, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Ruth Iskin and Arlene Raven.
The Birth of Chrysalis
Chrysalis set out to cover feminist art and other issues central to women. Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie launched Chrysalis by joining with a few women in Los Angeles, including feminist artist Judy Chicago, who were already planning a women’s art magazine. Together the women expanded the concept to include all aspects of women’s culture.
Destination: Los Angeles Woman’s Building
Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie met when they were at Columbia University in New York. Early in the 1970s, they traveled across the U.S. cataloging the activities and experiences of women’s groups, from women’s liberation marches to rape crisis centers. They described what they found in Los Angeles as a different kind of energy and excitement with strong support of women’s activities and women’s art.
Chrysalis Content
The women published Chrysalis as an editorial collective, brainstorming and making decisions together. Each issue contained original art. The editors tried to give each work, whether image or text, its own space, unencumbered by advertisement or other distractions.
Audre Lorde served as the poetry editor. Other famous contributors to Chrysalis included Adrienne Rich, Lucy Lippard and Linda Nochlin, author of the famous 1971 essay “Why Are There No Great Women Artists?”
Like many feminist endeavors, Chrysalis was sometimes considered controversial for challenging tradition and patriarchy.
The End of the Metamorphosis?
Chrysalis was published from 1977–1981. It eventually succumbed to financial struggles without the support of a large institution. Chrysalis is often remembered by feminist historians as having a significant impact, perhaps more than could be expected from its relatively few years of publication.